Activity in choosing examples improves categorical prototype learning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Objective. The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between children's activity when selecting examples and the success of prototype learning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Context and relevance. Previous research has shown that children with ASD experience difficulty with implicit rule learning (prototypes), whereas their ability to learn explicit or verbal rules is similar to that of typically developing children. Methods and materials. In this study, we compare the performance of categorical learning between typically developing preschool children (n = 20) and those with ASD (n = 20), using different types of rules (prototypes and verbal) and learning formats (active, where children select their own examples, and passive, where they are not given a choice). Hypothesis. According to our hypothesis, we expect that in the active learning condition, children with ASD will perform better on prototype tasks than in the passive condition, while there will be no difference in performance between formats for verbal rule learning. Results. The hypothesis was confirmed both during the learning phase and in the test, which required the transfer of learned rules. Despite the fact that children with ASD formed prototypes less successfully than neurotypical children, they learned more successfully with an active learning format. In the test, their success at categorizing prototypes using this active format was as good as that of neurotypical children.